Microsoft က ၄င္း၏ software မ်ားကို အင္တာနက္မွ စတင္ေရာင္းခ်။

Microsoft, which has made billions of dollars selling packaged software, has opened its first online store in the United States offering its ubiquitous programmes for downloading.

In a possible death knell for the practice of selling software on computer discs which buyers install on their machines, the Redmond, Washington-based software giant has opened a Microsoft Store on the Internet.

The online store, which also offers hardware such as Xbox 360 consoles and Zune MP3 music players, launched on Thursday with no more fanfare than an announcement in a blog posting by a senior programme manager, Trevin Chow.

Noting that Microsoft already operates online stores in Britain, Germany and South Korea, Chow said: "With this launch, our customers in the US are able to buy first-party software and hardware directly from Microsoft offered in a comprehensive online catalog.

"In addition to shipping fully packaged products to your doorstep, we offer the additional advantage by making available many Microsoft products to buy and download," Chow said.

"You pay for an (EDS, Electronic Software Distribution) product just like you would for one that would be physically shipped to you," he added.

"The big difference is that after your payment is confirmed, you can immediately download the product to your computer and install it right away."

Microsoft Store offers the full gamut of Microsoft products, from Windows Vista to Microsoft Office. It also offers Xbox 360 games but for shipping on DVD, not for download at the moment.

Microsoft's fortune has been built on creating and selling packaged software such as its Windows operating systems that people install on their machines or come pre-installed on computers.

But the company has been coming under increasing pressure from firms such as arch-rival Google which have rolled out free Web-based applications that compete with text, spreadsheet, calendar and other software from Microsoft.

Microsoft also announced recently that it will release on online version of Office, essentially taking the software into the "computing cloud" as a service available on the Internet.

Web-based versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote programmes will be available online at Office Live by subscription or licensing deals, according to Microsoft.

Last month, Microsoft chief software architect Ray Ozzie unveiled a platform known as Azure for offering programmes as hosted services on the Internet.

Faster Internet networks and more powerful computing devices have given birth to cloud computing, a trend in which programmes are hosted online as services with software maintained on machines operated by technology companies.

Microsoft originally responded to the trend with a "software plus services" strategy that combined its original tactic of selling packaged programmes while providing cloud-based features and support.

The Azure platform lets developers build online services and websites to operate on machines updated, maintained and protected by Microsoft.

"Windows Azure is not software you run on your own servers, but rather it is a service running on a vast number of machines housed in Microsoft's own data centers, first in the US and then worldwide," Ozzie said.

Myanmar To Introduce Wireless Internet System Next Year

Myanmar is striving to introduce a wireless internet system of WiFi by early next year, Xinhua quoted the local weekly 7-Day News as reporting Wednesday.

Arranged by the local IT company of Exotic Wing, the system will be in service starting with the coverage of 16 main townships in the former capital city of Yangon, the company sources was quoted as saying.

Provisionally, such system is being granted for use in Yangon's Hyper Market and Sakura Tower only and WiFi hot spots are being installed in the hub of the city to enable that the system could formally start running in early next January, the report said.

By then, laptops with the WiFi system can enter the world from any corner of the city, the Chinese news agency quoted the report as saying.

Meanwhile, Myanmar has planned full coverage of public access centers (PAC) in every township in the country by next March to facilitate communication links.

There are so far 240 PAC in Myanmar, according to the Myanmar Info-Tech.

The telecommunications authorities also revealed that the number of internet users in Myanmar has also reached nearly 300, 000, up from merely dozens four years ago.

Myanmar has been striving for the development of ICT to contribute its part to the national economic development.

In December 2007, Myanmar's first largest ICT park, also known as the Yadanabon Myothit Cyber City, was introduced in Pyin Oo Lwin, a northern city of Myanmar in Mandalay division.

The cyber city, which covers an overall area of 10,000 acres (4, 050 hectares), is located in the hilly Pyin Oo Lwin near a highway, 67 kilometers east of the second largest city of Mandalay in the north, and 20 percent of the cyber city area produce software and hardware.

The internet of the cyber city not only links with the whole country but also connect neighboring China, Thailand and India.

Meanwhile, more and more local and foreign information technology (IT) companies have sought investment in the cyber city for the development of IT business undertakings.

According to the authorities, it has allotted 372 acres (150 hectares) of land plot for 35 more local and foreign IT companies to work in the cyber city.

Myanmar has been lunching ICT development master plan under the Initiative for ASEAN Integration (IAI) and detailed programs to link international networks are also being carried out in accordance with the master plan drafted by the Myanmar Computer Federation.

Being a signatory to the e-ASEAN Framework Agreement initiated at 2000 Singapore summit, Myanmar has formed the e-National Task Force to support the IT development.

Besides, the country has also signed a series of memorandums of understanding since 2003 with such companies as from Malaysia, Thailand, China and South Korea on ICT development.